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Mamdani's new business advisor has message for 'naysayers' · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Mayor Zoran Mondani is now working to win over New
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  Speaker 1: York's business community after pushing big corporations to consider moving
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: out of the Big Apple over his high tax policy proposals.
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  Speaker 2: Is New York going to put their fiscal house to
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  Speaker 2: order and run itself from a position of a strong
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  Speaker 2: government that's pro-business?
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  Speaker 3: You have a legislative environment and a taxing environment that
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  Speaker 3: is pushing people to explore other options. You've seen it
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  Speaker 3: this year with Citadel, with Apollo, with Morgan Stanley. Goldman
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  Speaker 3: Sachs hasn't been growing. J.P. Morgan has more jobs in
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  Speaker 3: Texas than they do here. So, it is a trend.
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  Speaker 1: Mamdani's newly launched business advisory council is recruiting CEOs after
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  Speaker 1: the mayor says that he wants New York to be
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  Speaker 1: a place where companies can grow. But he's also pushed
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  Speaker 1: for higher taxes on corporations and high earners. Our next
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  Speaker 1: guest is one of the business leaders that Mayor Mamdani
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  Speaker 1: has turned to for advice, the former chief executive of
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  Speaker 1: UBS America's Robert Wolf. Robert, great to see you. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for coming on.
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  Speaker 4: Great to see you, Ainsley.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I know you helped him before, about a year ago,
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  Speaker 1: when he won. And you helped him for that first
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  Speaker 1: meeting with Donald Trump. And now he's asked you to
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  Speaker 1: be on this advisory board. But it's just interesting. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of people are— a lot of the critics say this
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  Speaker 1: is hypocrisy, because he just got rid of— days before he
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  Speaker 1: announced this, he fired the entire advisory board of the
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  Speaker 1: mayor's fund to advise New York City. This channels private
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  Speaker 1: corporation donations into our city, and he's slapped everyone with
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  Speaker 1: the Pieta tear tax. If they have, you know, some
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  Speaker 1: of these big corporations, the CEOs have extra apartments in
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  Speaker 1: New York City. They want to help build and grow
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  Speaker 1: New York. But he's forcing a lot of people to leave, Robert.
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  Speaker 4: Well, a lot to unpack there.
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  Speaker 2: First, I mean, it's not surprising that when a mayor
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  Speaker 2: comes in or when President Trump comes in, they change
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  Speaker 2: the boards.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I was on the.
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  Speaker 2: Pentagon board advising them.
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  Speaker 4: President Trump came in. He changed the board.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised Mayor Mondani changed the board.
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  Speaker 4: Listen, it's always important the.
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  Speaker 2: Private and public sector figure out how to work together
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  Speaker 2: and find the balance. What I would say to some
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  Speaker 2: of the naysayers is, one, we're near 5 million jobs
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  Speaker 2: in New York, near record high. They've added 6,000 private
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  Speaker 2: sector jobs.
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  Speaker 4: Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
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  Speaker 2: But the idea that the mayor wants to bring in
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  Speaker 2: the private sector to constructively challenge him and figure out
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  Speaker 2: where we can work together, I think is always a
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  Speaker 2: good thing.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, the alternative is to sit on the sidelines.
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  Speaker 2: And so my opinion is whenever you can raise your
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  Speaker 2: hand to help New York City thrive, you raise it.
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  Speaker 4: It's a very simple proposition for me.
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  Speaker 1: So you're very successful. We've seen all these companies. I
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  Speaker 1: think we have a list of some of the big
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  Speaker 1: companies that have left New York. Is there anything that
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  Speaker 1: you could tell this mayor to do or that you
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  Speaker 1: would like to to bring corporations back to New York?
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  Speaker 1: What would you advise him?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, here's what I would say. I would say one.
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  Speaker 2: We have to make sure that New York lowers its
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  Speaker 2: regulatory hurdles, I would say, number two. We have to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that capitalism is front and center. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the mayor and I have— absolutely have disagreements. But where
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  Speaker 2: we do agree is that we have to focus on affordability.
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  Speaker 2: We have to reduce poverty. Two and a half million
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  Speaker 2: people are in poverty in the city of New York.
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  Speaker 2: It's near record high. And so we have to do
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  Speaker 2: some good things for the city. The best way to
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  Speaker 2: do that, I don't agree, it's with taxes. That's where
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  Speaker 2: he and I disagree. I think it's with revenue growth.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's with making sure that we have the
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  Speaker 2: right skills for the future. as we don't know today
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  Speaker 2: how AI is going to disintermediate jobs. So I think
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things we can work together with
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  Speaker 2: the mayor. And then there's certainly going to be places
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  Speaker 2: where we disagree. I mean, you know me for decades.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a capitalist and I'm a moderate. But
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  Speaker 2: like I say, if I can be helpful and give
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  Speaker 2: my insights and push back where we disagree, but applaud
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  Speaker 2: where we do agree, I'm going to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've always been fair. We've been friends for a
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  Speaker 1: long time, and I appreciate your fairness. But he's so extreme.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad he has you on the advisory board because
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  Speaker 1: we need more moderates. But when you look at where
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  Speaker 1: some of these big companies are going, Apollo went to Austin,
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  Speaker 1: Citadel's in Miami, Alliance Bernstein is in Nashville, JP Morgan,
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  Speaker 1: more people working in Texas than in New York now.
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  Speaker 1: That is shocking. And then Wells Fargo, Palm Beach, and
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  Speaker 1: that's just a few of the big ones. So how,
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  Speaker 1: it's very concerning because what's happening is they employ so
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  Speaker 1: many people. So it's not just these CEOs, the billionaires
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  Speaker 1: that are moving out and building, you know, mega homes
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  Speaker 1: down in Palm Beach. What's concerning is all the people
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  Speaker 1: they employ. So our tax base is smaller.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, here's what I would say.
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  Speaker 2: What we are seeing is when these companies move out,
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  Speaker 2: companies are moving in, Anthropix moving in. We're actually record
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  Speaker 2: levels on commercial real estate right now, people coming in.
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  Speaker 2: So we're actually competing with San Francisco to be the
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  Speaker 2: new tech hub. And so I think that there's always
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  Speaker 2: going to be transitions, companies moving in, companies moving out.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, listen, when I was running UBS, we were
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  Speaker 2: in 49 states and 27 countries. We moved some of
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  Speaker 2: our administrative people elsewhere. We moved some of our banking
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  Speaker 2: to Texas on the energy side. So you're always looking
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  Speaker 2: ways to figure out what's the best for the employees
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  Speaker 2: and the shareholders and our clients. So I mean, but
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  Speaker 2: then again, Ken Griffin's keeping Citadel here in his new
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  Speaker 2: real estate. Jamie Dimon just built one of the largest
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  Speaker 2: places in New York City.
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  Speaker 4: He's keeping it here. So I would just say we
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  Speaker 4: can always look.
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  Speaker 2: At the other side on they're also growing their employee base. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'm not worried about New York City. I'm
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  Speaker 2: just worried about making sure we have the right opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to make it thrive.
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  Speaker 1: OK, Robert, thank you. Have a great weekend. Be sure
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• 5:51
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